Everything about Viagra makes us laugh. We all know what it's for (and spam has ensured that we never forget!), but the ads are never really about doin' The Do -- they're always about love and intimacy, which in this jaded world is a lot like taking the sluggish scenic route to the same destination.
So, fingertips at the ready, we watched "Couple" with the full intention of taking the piss out of it. And get this: we couldn't. Because it moved us.
Yeah, we're embarrassed too.
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Household appliance firm Midea tapped Transistor Studios and Ogilvy/Shanghai to promote its compact air conditioning (AC) product line.
"Dream" depicts a sleek, energy-efficient AC that self-repairs, senses changes in the environment and apparently morphs like the space ship in Flight of the Navigator.
That's exciting and all, but the skeletal arms and single eye had us picturing HAL, poring over us as we sleep, breathing frosty air onto the hair on our necks before spiriting us into cruel oblivion.
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Tums manifests its antacid magic in "Angry Bear," where the aforementioned animal steals food, overeats and goes back in for one more score: the Tums.
There's something about the sight of a bear, far-off and out of decapitation range, that totally numbs us to its potential malevolence. It's like, "Aww, look at the bear eating all the pizza. Look at the bear breaking the watermelon. Look at the bear getting the Tums for its tummy."
You kind of want to curl up around it and fall asleep while it's lying against one of those gutted cars, nursing a food hangover.
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To make kids act more energy-smart, the Department of Energy launched Lose Your Excuse, a painfully cute website* that encourages engagement and boasts a 10-step energy "action plan" to download.
Two quirky little ads drive traffic in its direction. Each features a kid getting caught in a lie about why s/he hasn't become more energy efficient. (I know that vibes like the Spanish Inquisition, but the execution is feel-good and funny).
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Except there's no Coke, and lots of Domos.
"Jump Rope" -- chock full of delicious images and noises -- was put together for client Nike by AKQA. Creativity Online pegged its position "the escapism of exercise." Well-said.
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Remember those Little Thickburger commercials from last year? Riffing off that, Hardee's launched an ad generator app so fans could create their own Thickburger comparisons.
The company expected maybe one or two to shine, but it turns out about 16 spots turned out to be broadcast-quality. (Though when you think about it, it's a pretty tough formula to screw up: [Big thing. Little thing.] Extra points for wordplay.) See them here.
"And we didn't even offer them a million dollars. Or anything for that matter," Hardee's added, puffing its chest out for extra effect.
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With help from Cactus, ONE Step focuses on protecting the health of young children by encouraging smoker parents to go outside before lighting up.
The narration is soothing and the message doesn't direct smoking wholesale, although the smoke dragons and flesh-eating ravens -- which malevolently circle and eventually engulf the kiddies -- make things just uncomfortable enough.
We'll step outside, and we don't even have kids. Though this doesn't provide a gameplan for what to do when little kids walk by, but hey, those ones aren't yours.*
More on this at raisesmokefreekids.com.
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DIRECTV reminds us all of its relevance (...?) with help from fictional rival Cable Corp Inc. In this latest installment of boardroom bumbling, Cable Corp decides to battle DIRECTV with a new tagline: "Get Youthenized!"
Enter creepy puns. By Deutsch/LA.
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CollegeClickTV.com hopes to encourage more kids to get a college education -- and possibly get into football? -- by broadcasting soothing pro-college messages, spoken by President Obama, on network TV.
Hear everyone's favourite political personality wax poetic about the merits of an education -- and football -- while a static image reads, "And now a message about... COLLEGE ...the best investment that you can make." CollegeClickTV's URL appears at the end of each clip.
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On Super Bowl Sunday Hyundai launched "Angry Bosses," an ad that depicted corpos all over the world angrily shouting Hyundai! in various states of aneurysm-inducing rage.
At the end, a calm voiceover goes, "Win one little award, and suddenly everyone gets your name right. It's 'Hyundai', like 'Sunday'."
Never mind the screamers in the video. That last line, "It's 'Hyundai', like 'Sunday'," has incited the righteous indignation of at least one man, "Bernard in CT," who believes the idea of rhyming "Hyundai" with days of the week was his idea.
And damnit, he deserves the cred for it.
Letter and ad below.
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